If you’re over 55 and having trouble finding a job, there is one place that can help. AARP’s Senior Employment Programn in Whitehall served more than 16-thousand people last year.

It’s unlikely then her vision included people like Ron Koontz. The Pickerington resident lost jobs six or seven times in his career in architectural engineering, a business he calls cyclical. Over the years, Koontz also took responsibility for sick and aging parents and a stepmother.

“Those kinds of responsibilities plus trying to make a living, if you will, is quite challenging.”

After his own consulting business failed to catch on, 57-year old Koontz went to AARP’s Senior Employment Program for job placement.

Through the program Job seekers are placed at a non- profit to hone or develop new work skills.

Koontz was placed at the National barber Museum in Canal Winchester as an archivist.

“If you asked me a couple of years ago, ‘you’re gonna be in a museum, and I’m like “Who me?”’ But it was amazing how the needs of the National Barber Museum matched my skill set and my work experience perfectly, hand in glove,” Koontz said.

Jan Aselin directs AARP’s Senior Employment program on Main Street in Whitehall. She says professionals like Koontz sometimes face a difficult reality after being laid off from a job in their chosen field.

“It’s one of the most heartbreaking things that we face as trying to point them in another career pathway. And, unfortunatey, because of the age factor they’re not going to go into a job even if it’s similar to what they did at the same salary,” Aselin explained.

Applicants must be over 55, unemployed and low-income.

Aselin says Koontz and other workers are paid a training wage of between and and 15 dollars an hour, depending on the difficulty of the job. She says they can stay in their assignments for four years while they look for a permanent position.

That arrangement worked out well for Marla Caslin. Caslin became unemployed after years of steady jobs.

“I worked for the state for fifteen years as a word processing specialist. I worked for Columbia Gas in the accounts payable office. Prior to the accounts payable department I was in customer service. I’ve done customer service for many years.”

But she suddenly found it impossible to find a job. Caslin entered the Senior employment program at the age of sixty-two.

Caslin says it finally dawned on her that her age might be standing in the way of employment.

“Well, I’m glad you asked that question because I wanted to know the same thing because I’d always been blessed with jobs. And then it dawned on me, well it could be my age,”she said.

Caslin’s age posed no problem for Jan Aselin. She and Caslin immediately hit it off. Caslin was placed in Aselin’s office to train and improve her job skills.

After four years, Caslin found permanent work as a job placement specialist at the Homeless Family Shelter at the YWCA.

“What I do is to provide resources, job leads, help them with resume cover letters, you know, just assess their skill set to see what types of jobs they could qualify for and help them obtain employment,” Caslin explained.

Jan Aselin calls Marla Caslin her success story.

But for all the successes like Caslin and Ron Koontz, Aselin admits there are people who are difficult to place.

“Ex-offenders. This is a tough, tough population to find employment. People, who for whatever reason, are disadvantaged and they don’t even have GED’s. You can’t get a job if you don’t have a GED,” Aselin said.

That doesn’t mean people can’t get placed in a job. Aselin says it may just take more work. But she says for people who want to work there are no barriers too difficult or too high to overcome.

“That’s right. You could be a hundred years old. I’ve got two people who are in their eighties and they’re the zippiest, hard working women you’ve ever seen in your life. And they have language like sailors but I’m telling you they work,” Aselin said.

]]>http://wosu.org/2012/news/2015/03/02/aarp-helps-seniors-find-jobs/feed/0aarp,Jan Aselin,jobsIf you're over 55 and having trouble finding a job, there is one place that can help. AARP’s Senior Employment Program served more than 16-thousand people last year.If you're over 55 and having trouble finding a job, there is one place that can help. AARP’s Senior Employment Program served more than 16-thousand people last year.WOSU Newsno4:27Southwest Airlines Adds More Direct Flights At Port Columbushttp://wosu.org/2012/news/2015/02/19/southwest-airlines-adds-direct-flights-port-columbus/
http://wosu.org/2012/news/2015/02/19/southwest-airlines-adds-direct-flights-port-columbus/#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 19:29:54 +0000Marilyn Smithhttp://wosu.org/2012/news/?p=88371

Southwest Airlines announced today it will add direct flights to Boston and the San Fransisco area from Port Columbus this summer.

Southwest Airlines announced today it will add direct flights to Boston and the San Fransisco area from Port Columbus in August.

Today’s announcement comes on the heels of last week’s news that Southwest was adding direct flights to Dallas and Washington, D. C. in April.

Rob Elking of Grandview Travel says the expansion of flights is great news for travelers.

“We’re looking at these two new destinations plus with the recent announcement of an additional flight to Dallas and Atlanta and also to Washington, this is going to be great for amybody traveling out of Columbus,” he said.

The city confirms it is working with the economic development organization Columbus 2020 to set a reserve fund to cover the loss of revenue for Southwest if the flights fail to attract enough passengers.

“Ohio, especially Central Ohio a few years ago we had a very high rate of immunization of children. So we had actually been recognized by CDC for having some of the highest rates in the nation. Actually, the highest rate in the nation,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez says Ohio needs to create a “culture of protection” for its youngest residents.

Health officials say a new state law requiring children entering daycare to be vaccinated should help to increase the number of Ohio children who are immunized.

Before the national cry that police officers be outfitted with body cameras reached its current fevered pitch, the police force at Ohio State began experimenting with the little devices last September.

Before the national cry that police officers be outfitted with body cameras reached its current fevered pitch, the police force at Ohio State began experimenting with the little devices last September.

Captain David Rose says the 47-member OSU force currently has seven cameras, soon to grow to nine.

Rose says Certain officers have been assigned the devices to use out in the field. Rose said the goal of the OSU pilot program is evidence gathering.

“The point of our camera program is about capturing evidence and we’re relatively early in a pilot program,” Rose said.

OSU spokesman Dan Hedman said the program is open-ended.

You can hear WOSU’s Marilyn Smith’s conversation with OSU Police Captain David Rose.

]]>http://wosu.org/2012/news/2015/01/29/osu-police-officers-outfitted-body-cameras/feed/0Body Cameras,Evidence,OSU PoliceBefore the national cry that police officers be outfitted with body cameras reached its current fevered pitch, the police force at Ohio State began experimenting with the little devices last September.Before the national cry that police officers be outfitted with body cameras reached its current fevered pitch, the police force at Ohio State began experimenting with the little devices last September.WOSU Newsno4:07Dems Announce Convention Datehttp://wosu.org/2012/news/2015/01/23/dems-announce-convention-date/
http://wosu.org/2012/news/2015/01/23/dems-announce-convention-date/#commentsFri, 23 Jan 2015 19:43:01 +0000Marilyn Smithhttp://wosu.org/2012/news/?p=86761

The democratic party announced today it will hold its national presidential nominating convention the week of July 25th. Columbus is one of three cities being considered to host the event.

First it was a 200-pound golf ball..then a tree climbing man…now it’s a turtle.

They’re all pieces of public art that have disappeared in the last couple of years.

David Guione the Executive Director of the Dublin Arts Council says the golf ball and the climbing man were returned but damaged. Still, he said overall, the city has a pretty good history when it comes to its public art collection.

“I guess we have a pretty good track record. The collection is over twenty-five years old and it has over seventy sculptural elements. So, I think percentage-wise we’re doing pretty well, ” Guione said.

Guione described the missing turtle as two feet wide by two feet long with a frog on its back. It weighs 20 to 30 pounds, he said.

Authorities are unsure about the fate of the turtle. Depending on the work’s value, art theft could be prosecuted as a felony, Guione said.

In the world of social media, 2014 may well have been the year of the “selfie”. But what do those self-portraits say about us? Quite a bit according to a professor at Ohio State who studied the personalities of men who posted lots of “selfies.” Jesse Fox looked at the posting practices of 800 men [...]

In the world of social media, 2014 may well have been the year of the “selfie”. But what do those self-portraits say about us? Quite a bit according to a professor at Ohio State who studied the personalities of men who posted lots of “selfies.”

Jesse Fox looked at the posting practices of 800 men across the country, ages 18 to 40. And what she found painted less than a pretty picture.

“What we see is an association narcissism and psychopathy and selfie posting,” Fox said.
Jesse Fox is an assistant professor of communications at Ohio State. She says a subsequent study of women who post lots of selfies shows similar personality traits with an even greater tendency toward self-objectification.

]]>http://wosu.org/2012/news/2015/01/08/men-selfies-add-less-attractive-personality-traits/feed/2Jesse Fox,personality traits,selfiesIn the world of social media, 2014 may well have been the year of the "selfie". But what do those self-portraits say about us? Quite a bit according to a professor at Ohio State who studied the personalities of men who posted lots of "selfies." - In the world of social media, 2014 may well have been the year of the "selfie". But what do those self-portraits say about us? Quite a bit according to a professor at Ohio State who studied the personalities of men who posted lots of "selfies."
Jesse Fox looked at the posting practices of 800 men across the country, ages 18 to 40. And what she found painted less than a pretty picture.
"What we see is an association narcissism and psychopathy and selfie posting," Fox said.
Jesse Fox is an assistant professor of communications at Ohio State. She says a subsequent study of women who post lots of selfies shows similar personality traits with an even greater tendency toward self-objectification.WOSU Newsno3:47